Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion

Raoul said:
Yeah but he could've just as well preserved his regime by not attacking Ukraine in the first place. He's obviously talking nonsense in the same way Trump does - by saying he is being attacked while actually doing the attacking.
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Preserving - yes.
Living up to its own expectations - no.

The birthplace of Russia not being part of the Russian Federation is a major ideological problem and taking over Ukraine was the only solution for that.

But I agree in so far as that's a hole he dug himself into.
 
Spark said:
Can't see any benefit whatsoever to these drone attacks, other than to signal to Russia that Moscow isn't untouchable.
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Makes Putin look weak, gives his security apparatus a fit, signals Ukraine is playing offence and not defence, keeps his regime off balance and makes them wonder "what's next". That's the benefit. All part of the softening up exercise ahead of the counter offensive.
 


Seems like Ukraine is finally getting ATACMS too.
Biden earlier today confirmed these are still very much in-play:

My guess is ATACMS could have been part of the deal with Republicans when it comes to lifting the debt limit…
 
stefan92 said:
sigh
Get ready my fellow Germans, it's time to take over Greece again. Last time we had to force them stop giving money away they didn't have, now it's time to motivate them giving stuff away that they do have. Probably we overdid it while teaching "not spending too much money"?
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Just curious, how do you evaluate the role of germany in the whole crisis in southern europe? Positive? Negative?
 
Raoul said:
Whats up @frostbite

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I have no idea. I am a US citizen, I live in the US, and none of my US/Greek/European friends said anything about this, it is not even an issue as far as I know.

I am curious, where do you find these tweets? Are you on twitter all day? Is this "Igor Something" an important person?
 
frostbite said:
I have no idea. I am a US citizen, I live in the US, and none of my US/Greek/European friends said anything about this, it is not even an issue as far as I know.

I am curious, where do you find these tweets? Are you on twitter all day? Is this "Igor Something" an important person?
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Precisely. I'm on Twitter 24/7 searching for tweets about Greek policy towards Russia.
 
Raoul said:
Precisely. I'm on Twitter 24/7 searching for tweets about Greek policy towards Russia.
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Well, then perhaps it is a good idea to delete this "Igor" guy from the people you are following because what he says is not in the Politico article he referred to. I don't know anything about the issue, but my guess is that probably the Greek PM was trying to protect the Greek shipowners, perhaps some paragraph could be damaging for them. Politico says that the EU meeting is on June 26th, I am sure everything will be fine by then. Greece has general elections on June 25th, and the Greek shipowners are important in Greek politics.
 
Ah yes, need to protect those Greek shipowners, who are probably making a killing from shipping all that Russian oil. Makes perfect sense.
It's nice to have such incorruptible partners.
 
maniak said:
Just curious, how do you evaluate the role of germany in the whole crisis in southern europe? Positive? Negative?
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Bit of both, I am not really sure about this. There were a lot of discussions about the right way to deal with this so I am not sure the best decisions were made.

What is definitely negative is the long term effect on German politics - the right wing AfD party was founded because of the Euro crisis and is now Russia's best friend in Germany.
 
About Greece and Germany, we are allies and we love each other. Many Germans visit Greece, have houses in Greece, and many Germans actually love Greece. And today, there is total agreement between Greece and Germany about helping Ukraine and stopping the Russian invasion. The now-destroyed Mariupol had a sizable Greek minority, used to be third in size after Ukrainians and Russians:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariupol#Ethnic_structure

As a positive example, all Greeks love Otto Rehhagel, watch the 2021 "King Otto" documentary for more details (in the US it is available on Peacock, which also has the rights for many EPL games):
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14404882/reference/


But there are some problems as well. One negative example is the WW2 reparations, which is not a closed subject, definitely not for Greece:
https://www.euractiv.com/section/eu...s-in-bundestag-over-wwii-reparations-dispute/
https://greekreporter.com/2023/01/19/greek-president-mentions-war-reparations-germany/


For those who don't know what happened, Wikipedia can help:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_reparations#Greece

As a result of the Nazi German occupation, much of Greece was subjected to enormous destruction of its industry (80% of which was destroyed), infrastructure (28% destroyed), ports, roads, railways and bridges (90%), forests and other natural resources (25%) and loss of civilian life (7.02–11.17% of its citizens). Other sources put the total number of deaths resulting from the Axis occupation at 273,000 to 747,000 Greeks, or 3.7-10.2% of the prewar population. The occupying Nazi regime forced Greece to pay the cost of the occupation in the country and requisite raw materials and food for the occupation forces, creating the conditions for the Great Famine. Furthermore, in 1942, the Greek Central Bank was forced by the occupying Nazi regime to lend 476 million Reichsmarks at 0% interest to Nazi Germany.
 
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Trying to draw a line from WW2 all the way Greece increasing their trade with Russia after the invasion, Greek ships being the main vector of Russian oil, Greek politicians blocking sanctions and Greece rather aiming their Leopards at Nato allies than give a single one to Ukraine takes whataboutism to a whole new level..

Not that any of this should come as a surprise, considering their reputation for corruption.
 
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Wait a minute, I thought you were an American citizen living in the USA? Now suddenly you're a Greek again?
 
https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/themen/krieg-in-der-ukraine/lieferungen-ukraine-2054514

Weekly update on German support for Ukraine.

Not many deliveries this week, only the following items:
- 2 HX81 armoured trucks
- 7 Themis UGV
- ammunition for Leopard 1 MBT

The last point should be the most interesting as it indicates that the tanks should be delivered soon.

More interesting is what is newly pledged:
- 64 Bandvagn 206
- 66 APC

The government doesn't specify what kind of APC, but media reports indicate that it will be the TPz Fuchs, probably a mix of variants that are in stock or can be shortly made/upgraded, up to the new Fuchs Evolution, Ukraine would be the first army to get that model.
 
RedDevilQuebecois said:
It may have been answered already, but are those Chechens the type to surrender quickly or they will prefer getting their asses kicked? In either case, we already know they are not that competent.
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They are there for show only imo. They've been deployed to various spots in Ukraine and seemed to spend most of their time filming social media clips of their guys firing heavy weapons. If they were useful, they would've surely already been used in areas the Russians cared about (like Bakhmut)
 
Didn't we have a poster who told us they were superior to the EU soldiers and amongst the best soldiers in the world about 6 months ago?
 
Raoul said:
They are there for show only imo. They've been deployed to various spots in Ukraine and seemed to spend most of their time filming social media clips of their guys firing heavy weapons. If they were useful, they would've surely already been used in areas the Russians cared about (like Bakhmut)
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Wasn’t it them who got absolutely obliterated by an arty strike or whatnot on some snowy road at the start of all this?
 
Krakenzero said:
Didn't we have a poster who told us they were superior to the EU soldiers and amongst the best soldiers in the world about 6 months ago?
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Was that the guy who shoved boiled eggs up his bum? Unbelievably, this is a genuine question.
 
Carolina Red said:
Wasn’t it them who got absolutely obliterated by an arty strike or whatnot on some snowy road at the start of all this?
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There were quite of few of these episodes where they got clobbered, then swiftly disappeared from social media for a while. Seems Kadyrov and his goons are very good at looking tough at parades inside Chechnya, but less effective during actual wars.
 
Like Russia, Ukraine has laid thousands of mines along its front line. And to advance into occupied territory, its troops now need to get through these lines without tipping off the Russians, who would notice if heavy machinery were brought in or explosions were set off. This means sappers must go out to the fields and quietly remove the mines.
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